Geoff Calkins' Take 5: On Justin Fuente, signing day, and the hope for Tiger football

Five quick thoughts on Justin Fuente and the Memphis Tigers recruiting class:

1. I can't help it, I just find that whenever I talk to Fuente, I have more faith in the guy. It's plainly time for the team to start winning. But the numbers he throws out regarding the way the program has been overhauled are pretty darn persuasive. For example, when he arrived, Memphis had 50 scholarship players. Of those, 23 ultimately left before their eligibility was up. In other words, Fuente inherited a team with 27 players who were interested in being a part of his program going forward. By contrast, of the 68 players Fuente and his staff have recruited, 64 are still on campus.

2. Does that buy Fuente another year of good will if the team can't crack .500? No, it doesn't. Not in an era when Gus Malzahn can take the job at Auburn and get to the national championship game his first year. Not when Hugh Freeze has worked instant miracles at Ole Miss. But it does suggest Memphis is getting closer to being a credible football team.

3. As for the class itself, one thing that sticks out is that Memphis recruited a lot more players named Tyler (three!) than players who call Memphis home. So are the rumors true? Is Fuente not interested in recruiting Memphis aggressively? He says absolutely not, pointing out that roughly a third of the players he has recruited since he arrived have been from Memphis or the Memphis area. "Nobody is going to recruit and evaluate kids in this city harder than we are," Fuente said. It's worth nothing that Memphis did commit kids from Byhalia (two), Grenada (two), Tunica, Covington and West Memphis.

4. Among those Fuente thanked for the class was Fred Smith, presumably for the use of a plane.

5. How many stars did Fuente have when he committed to Oklahoma out of high school? "We didn't have stars," he said.